My letter to a new collector who was abused by a disreputable auction house

Bruce McKinney suggested that I reach out to you regarding accurate condition issues and values in the rare book field regarding the Linschoten volume you recently acquired. My partner, Jonah Rosenberg, with an Oxford PhD, has experience, integrity and accuracy in this genre. My feeling is that he is the best in the world in this field. Unfortunately, unlike all other areas of collecting, there is no grading system for books like there is for diamonds, watches, cars, comic books, baseball cards, balls and bats, stamps and coins. This fact has held back values, confidence and passion for this field. My crusade for over 10 years with Bruce has been to develop a grading system for books that focuses on importance, aesthetics, condition, rarity and provenance. He would then own and control the platform for rare book collecting generating an excellent return on his investment in this field of well over 10m. I am extremely keen for this to happen because increased transparency would add greatly to the value of my considerable investment in this field over the last 58 years. Jonah, copied on this email, is the best person to learn from in this field. Definitely it is not me. Bruce is also copied Truly Graham Arader, 1016 Madison Avenue, NYC, NY, 10075 grahamarader@gmail.com